FFS, how do you read so much?
Seriously?
Yeah, I read a lot, although I've read more than usual in the last little stretch of time. I’m in a good audiobook phase—I just switch between audiobooks and paperbacks from the library. It means I’m churning through titles at a good clip.
I hit a speed bump this month. I’ll be very honest about it. I tried to read things I didn’t like. Instead, I read things that I thought would make me seem very appealing, erudite, and literary. And so, I embarked on the Stella Prize Longlist. Truthfully, I’ve loved Stella winners in the past but have never attempted to conquer the full longlist.
I did a similar insane thing last year when I tried to read all of the Booker longlist. I did it. But if you asked me to recall the finer details of any of those books now, I could give you a rough sketch but not a complete response. Out of the dozen or so novels on that list, I’d say I enjoyed about two of them.
Did I let that stop me? No.
Did I think I would publish some amazing Substack or YouTube content where I would be lauded as deeply impressive and brilliant? Yes.
Was I too exhausted by the whole experience of reading the fucking books that I was then too burned out to make content about it? Yes.
Why do the same thing with the Stella? Don’t know.
So in the second half of the month I started about four of the books. I finished just one The Burrow by Melanie Cheng - detailed below. But I couldn’t move past the arch snobbery of the others. A lot of the time I avidly hate Literary Fiction. Other times, it’s completely life-changing. Maddening.
Anyway. I’ve given up. Who am I trying to impress anyway?
Do you want to hear something insane? I fell off Stella and decided to read Crime and Punishment instead. Yeah, because that’s an absolute breeze. (But for real, I’m actually enjoying that far more and will tell you about it once I’ve finished.)
POINT IS: Yes, I read a lot, and most of the time, I enjoy it. When I manage not to get myself tangled up in the books I ‘should’ read and just follow my actual desire, it’s great. It's great when I tell myself it’s okay to put a book down if I’m not enjoying it.
Reading comes with a burden that I want to be relieved from. I’d like to relieve it from you too.
We believe we will be better people if we read. I don’t think that’s true. Tony Abbott strikes me as a voracious reader. As is a bunch of white podcast-bros who are committed to self-help literature. Reading doesn’t automatically make you smarter, more compassionate or interesting. If you don’t feel like doing it, don’t bother.
Read for the love it. I say this to you and me: for fuck’s sake, stop wasting time on impressing the invisible people you think are watching your life. Just do it for yourself.
Anyway, here are the books I read in March.
The Dawn of Everything: A new history of humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Yeah, okay, the month started here: a tome that re-examines human civilisation. But I went with it. Graeber and Wengrow’s central thesis is compelling: we need to re-shape our view of civilisation. It is not one clean linear line from ‘inferior’ qualities to ‘superior’ ones. Instead, it’s a mess. By embracing that mess, we can have a more humanistic view of ourselves, and we can start to shed some implicit racism in our systems. If you want a deep science read, I recommend it.
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
You may already have opinions about Harari - he’s a best-selling writer who tends to write books that take macro-views on humanity. It’s a mix of philosophy and history. His brain is amazing. Interesting to read opposite Graeber and Wengrow’s book, who sometimes attack him directly for some of his more poetic moments that reduce complicated history to a single idea. But in Harari’s defence, it makes him way more readable than the stuffy academics that Graeber and Wengrow represent.
Regardless: yes, this is good, but God I had to put it down once Harari went down AI nightmare rabbit holes. It was compelling, but I knew it would give me nightmares.
Misery by Stephen King
In another insane piece of nerdism, I’m trying to read King’s books in published order, all sixty-something of them. But I’m actually enjoying the journey. Misery is fantastic. It’s a great starter King novel if you’ve never delved. King creates one of his most memorable characters in the stalker Annie Wilkes, who holds her favourite writer Paul Sheldon hostage, forcing him to write a new novel. King was a coming to terms with his cocaine addiction at the time, giving the entire thing a grounded horror that drives it forward.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a massive indie hit and highly recommended for any nerd. It’s a LitRPG - a book based on video game mechanics. Aliens take over Earth and turn everything into a giant dungeon that humans must survive. They can collect loot, level up, and experience pretty much everything like a video game. Easy and funny, I would highly recommend the audiobook, which features the amazing Jeff Hays.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
I enjoyed this at the time but completely forgot that I had when I assembled this list - that should tell you something. Still, The Wedding People was a Goodreads Fiction winner last year and is absolutely a cut above your average ‘chicklit’ contemporary fiction book. Phoebe Stone arrives at a hotel to kill herself, only to find the hotel run over by a wedding. Darkly funny with great characters.
The Burrow by Melanie Cheng
Currently on the long list for the Stella Prize, this brief story concerns a recently bereaved family and their adoption of a pet rabbit. Can’t say much about it other than it’s one of those Literary Fiction masterpieces that manages not to indulge in prose, but offer a startingly intimate portrayal of a family longing to hunker down and disappear. It’s beautiful and brilliant.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This has been on my to-read shift for a while. I loved The Martian, also by Weir - but his latest novel has saturated sci-fi BookTok and BookTube. I was not disappointed. My favourite read of the year so far - this more-science-than-fiction has the true marks of genius. Weir’s dedication to solving problems with real-life maths, physics, engineering and biology makes the entire plot shine. Deeply readable.
The book of elsewhere by China Mieville and Keanu Reeves
This was a random library pick-up, inspired by the fact I’ve never read Mieville, and I’ve been interested in Reeves sojourn into comics lately. This novel is a spin-off of that same world Reeves is building in the comics, centred around an immortal warrior who wants to die. The novel is a mess of weird ideas and fractured narratives. It’s a slog and unrewarding. Too much of the plot revolves around a magic pig (no, I’m not kidding).
Thinner by Stephen King
This pulpy thriller has a couple of problems - the central plot mechanism revolves around a Gypsy curse, there’s sex-shaming and there’s plot holes aplenty in the latter part. Still, if you want well-written dumb thriller, you can do far worse (see below) than this simple and short King-story about a man who keeps losing weight.
The Crash by Frieda McFadden
Booktok darling Freida McFadden is churning out best-selling thrillers. I’ve never read her - but if you enjoy the easy readability of the ‘contemporary female author’ that usually drifts towards romance, you’ll enjoy this. It’s pulp and it’s ridiculous. The central character is amazingly stupid and scared for all three hundred pages. But there’s enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and immerse you.
What did you read this much? Do you get tripped up in literary snobbery?
I do struggle with books I'm 'supposed' to read. I do often enjoy these books, but it can also be a slog. And my reading tastes (along with my threshold for 'literary fiction' snobbery) varies constantly. So sometimes I have to be okay with stopping a book halfway through. I recently did that with Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children'. I know it's a great book, and I'd love to come back to it at some point, but I just wasn't in the mood for it.
My only reads for March were Shirley Jackson's 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' (LOVED it) and Playground by Richard Powers (meh). I think I only have the attention span for smaller books at the moment, so I'm about to start Toni Morrison's Sula.